Another new article from Vernon J. Edwards entitled :  OFPP: Dead Letters?

 

Excellent article, Vern.  So true.

Excellent article.  Thanks for sharing/posting.  Sadly I don't see improvement any time soon.

Spot on, Vern, but I feel as if you're shouting into the abyss.

3 hours ago, here_2_help said:

Spot on, Vern, but I feel as if you're shouting into the abyss.

I am. But at least I get paid for doing it.

This was a headline in yesterday's Washington Post:

Quote

Biden’s nominee to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement withdraws

President Biden’s nominee to run U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has abruptly withdrawn from consideration after months of uncertainty, leaving the Homeland Security agency that detains and deports undocumented immigrants without a confirmed director for the sixth consecutive year.

"Sixth consecutive year."

We must all accept as fact that the federal government of the United States of America is no longer fully functioning and has not been fully functioning for quite some time. Many presidential appointments are unfilled. And even when filled, they are often filled by unqualified persons. This is true all the way up to the cabinet level.

The federal government is not fully competent. We cannot expect the best from our government right now. I wonder if we will ever be able to expect the best again. This should be a matter of grave concern to all citizens, but I do not think it is. I think most citizens have little if any direct contact with the federal government, or only infrequent contact, and do not know much about it.

But  every person I know who knows the federal government and has known it for some time thinks the situation is grave and getting worse, and that it's getting worse just as the challenges we face are becoming ever more serious.

All each of us can do is the best that we can.

 

2 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

[The government not fully functioning] should be a matter of grave concern to all citizens, but I do not think it is. I think most citizens have little if any direct contact with the federal government, or only infrequent contact, and do not know much about it.

I think this is generally true about all government law and policy.

A recent article quoted Supreme Court Justice Clarence as saying people seemed less attentive to the Constitution than they should be.

""I think we as citizens have lost interest and that's been my disappointment. That certainly was something that bothered Justice Scalia, that people tend to be more interested in their iPhones than their Constitution. They're interested in what they want rather than what is right as a country," he said."

He went on to say that "I think we are allowing ourselves to be ruled when we turn all that over to someone else and we're saying, 'Rule me.' Does it mean we get to make all the decisions? No. We have a system for doing that, but a part of that is our role in it, and our informed role in it, not what is said on TV, not what is said by some half-informed person."

31 minutes ago, Jamaal Valentine said:

He went on to say that "I think we are allowing ourselves to be ruled when we turn all that over to someone else and we're saying, 'Rule me.' Does it mean we get to make all the decisions? No. We have a system for doing that, but a part of that is our role in it, and our informed role in it, not what is said on TV, not what is said by some half-informed person."

All so true.  As a nation we don’t want to get personally involved in meaningful ways.  We listen to slanted news coverage, whether it’s CNN, MSNBC, Fox, or whatever and take what is said as gospel.  We vigorously argue our views in online forums and news source comments page when we don’t agree.

I wonder if anyone in those forums really think they can change the views of another?

But in terms of active involvement, everyone stays back so they can complain after the fact not realizing they turn the ruling over to others.

Read it and weep.

Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General—Legality of Service of Acting Inspector General

Quote

At any given time few working-level procurement folks have been able to name the current administrator, and since Steven Kelman (1973–77), whose name almost everyone knew, left the post in 1997.

But the only Administrator in my memory who met those criteria was Steve Kelman, who was appointed by President Clinton in 1973.

Speaking as someone who was there, the 1970's and 1990's couldn't have been more different so I'm not sure of the source of the confusion here.

🙄

You found a typo in the article. Kelman was Administrator from 1993-1997, not 1973-77.